Saturday night I was training Bruno with some freeze-dried liver treats, chicken-based training treats, and Victor GF Joint Health kibble from a sample bag. All went well, we had a long and productive training session, during which he had many treats. He was last taken out at 3am (right at the time change).

Sunday morning he wakes us up as usual to go potty, but way too early, even for him (8am), and this time, he’s shaking. I see that he can barely hold it, so I rush to take him out, and he goes immediately, very soft serve and a lot of it. We go back in, and two hours later, he needs to go again, for almost liquidy stool, and he went until he pooped clear. I figured he was done and emptied out, so we go back inside. He has some pumpkin in his breakfast kibble to try and help his tummy. I start cooking, so an hour later my friend points out that he had thrown up. About 30 min later, he goes #2 by the front door (I’m still cooking). When my husband takes him to his friend’s house, he throws up a quarter-sized amount, and poops liquid at their fireplace. When he came back, I had cooked some plain brown rice with coconut oil and I mixed it with his kibble to try and help his tummy troubles. Throughout the day he pooped a couple other times, at short intervals, and very soft and mucusy stuff, kind of gel-like, and incredibly smelly. He had 2 bowls of kibble and rice, and an extra half bowl of just brown rice with some water. He ate ok and his energy was just the same until the evening, when he was pooped out and passed out. We took him out right before going to bed, and this morning I woke up to him crying to go outside, so I rush to take him, but stumble upon 3 piles of poop in the bathroom and hallway… Outside, he pooped a tiny bit, still soft and mucusy/gel-like. So, now I have only served him his regular kibble, no rice.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what else I could give to him to make him feel better and fix his stools? They are usually very hard and I add different things to soften them up, but now I need the opposite effect. Maybe just kibble will help? If he continues like this all throughout today, we’re going to the vet first thing tomorrow…

Hi Aleksandra-
Poor, poor Bruno-
I’m not sure what caused his upset tummy, maybe all the different type of treats in one night? But, whenever my dogs get bad bellies, I try to withhold food and water for a while. It’s tough to do with multiple pets cause I have to feed the others. But, when I do feed him, I would never give kibble. That is the hardest type of food for them to digest. I usually start with a very small amount of rice and boiled chicken/turkey or canned food and pumpkin. You need to start with something very bland and only a small amount of it. It seems like you fed him too much too soon when he had a bad belly. Also, I would never take him to someone else’s house when he’s feeling sick. I honestly think about what I would do for myself or my kids when we are sick.
A great resource is dogaware dot com. They have a lot of great remedies for diarrhea. Best of luck to you!

No food for 24 hours!!! He can have all the water he likes. Then feed him 1/4 of what you normally feed him of something he is totally used to, kibble is fine as long as it is one he is used to, but soak it in water for 20 minutes and mash it up before feeding it. If there is no further diarrhea, then feed him 1/2 of a regular meal a few hours later, also soaked in water. After that, if there is still no further signs of stomach upset, you can go to a full meal.

Sounds like, to me anyways, if he’s not used to having liver and he ate a lot of the liver treats that might have caused it. I would definitely stop the kibble for a bit and, like crazy4cats suggested, do either boiled chicken and rice for a few days and the pumpkin. I just sounds like he had too much liver or too much something new.

But, if the runny stools continue for more than a few days after giving him the chicken and rice, I’d call your vet.

No food for at least 24 hours! Only liquids. And you can buy slippery elm to help coat his GI tract. Actually it’s in The Honest Kitchen Perfect Form. But you can get just plain slippery elm and make a gruel out of it.

I think he probably did have too many new things in one night, and I usually use his kibble for training, but I decided to give him a little treat, since I had the liver and chicken treats… Sigh.

As for the diet – I think he knows what’s best for him too, because that breakfast kibble – he still hasn’t eaten any of it. I will take it away and give him food tomorrow. His water bowl is always kept fresh and full, so he can have as much as he wants. Yesterday he was his usual energetic self, and looked like he had tons of fun at the friend’s house (they have a husky), but today he has been sleeping most of the day.
Thus far – very little poop in the morning and afternoon, he shouldn’t have too much left in his tummy with all the pooping he did throughout the night.

For tomorrow’s feeding, I am thinking of soaking a few kibbles in warm (not hot) water for a bit, then mushing them up with bland brown rice and a teaspoon of pumpkin, and feeding that and seeing how he does. If he seems ok, I will feed a larger amount of the same for lunch, and maybe the normal amount he would have at dinner.

My roommate suggested putting some uncooked rice in his food, because supposedly it soaks up any excess acid better than cooked rice. Any thoughts on that? Is it safe?

Also, of course, if little guy is not better by the end of Wednesday, we’re hitting up the vet on Thursday.

One of my friends asked if it may be worms of some sort – I don’t know, because it all happened literally overnight, so I think it’s the dang treats, but could it be any worms that could be causing this?

Thank you all SO much for the concern and advice! For now, I will just snuggle up with the little sick guy and study…

Harry does best & recovers faster with over cooked elbow macaroni rather than rice. I mix it with low sodium chicken broth. I have also mixed in unflavored Pedialyte if problems are prolonged. When things start to get better I introduce his food back in gradually. Liver treats did the same thing to him when I 1st brought him home. Vital Essentials Tripe treats are his favorite.

Oh and white bread helps the runs too as snack. All the white [email protected] that you shouldn’t eat comes in handy with a sick pooch. Greyhounds are notorious for stool problems so the bland diet is something I’m used to lol

This is interesting about the pasta. I don’t have elbow macaroni, but I could crush up some fettuccine, that should work, right? I can try this on Wednesday if the rice on Tuesday is not working out. And he has had some of the same treats before, but in a much smaller amount, like maybe up to 3, and he was ok. Oh, and did you add anything to the macaroni? Just broth, or some meat too?

I just use the broth/pasta mix at first and then as things improve add in some kibble or boiled chopped meat. I don’t use “whites” in my house either, but now buy the elbows just to have for Harry. Avoid the healthy grains until things firm up. Pumpkin, rice, oatmeal (Harry’s allergic to oatmeal-go figure) have never worked for him. Rice will work eventually but the pasta speeds things

Harry’s food intolerances have made me a pro at bland diet. When my Mom had emergency abdominal surgery I was her chef for 2 weeks – fed her the same meals (minus the kibble) LOL.

Hi Aleksandra. If I were you I would follow Patty’s (theBCnut) instructions to the letter. Don’t add pasta, bread, rice cooked or uncooked, whatever. It’s going to make matters worse. He’s gut has to heal and you’re just going to make it worse instead of better. What I’ve done in the past that has worked is exactly what theBCnut (Patty) suggested.

Oh! Uncooked rice is a DEFINITE no no. You don’t want the rice or anything else for the matter, swelling in his stomach. That’s exactly why theBCnut said to use 1/4 of his kibble, soak in warm water and mush it up. You want it to be easy for him to eat and digest. I would not feed him again at lunch time. I would definitely wait until his dinner time. It takes a while for the gut to heal (just like people when we’ve had a bad reaction to something we’ve eaten, we usually just start with a little bit of food and wait quite a while until we eat again). His digestive system has to adjust again. And please don’t over feed him. Again, it will make matter worse. Also, don’t feed him anything new. Just his regular kibble. Once he’s well completely, just feed him his regular food for a few days. I think you gave him all together way to many treats and too much variety and his system couldn’t take it.

FreeholdHound, thank you for the clarification. I may try this on Wednesday if tomorrow he is not better.

Dori, thank you for the recommendation too. I think this may be the first thing I try, just soak up his kibble and mush it up. If that doesn’t work, I will try rice and/or pumpkin (although I did yesterday, in 2 separate meals, to no avail…). And then, on Wednesday, I will try pasta.

I think each dog is different, so pasta MAY just do the trick for Bruno if his plain kibble and rice/pumpkin don’t. But I will give each advice a shot, and, if he has zero or too little improvement by Wednesday night, we will just go to the vet.

P.S. I think little guy is hungry now, he tried to eat my roommate’s dog’s food (Science Diet Lamb something). So I put him in our room again, he’s back to sleep. I think this no-food-for-24-hours is really keeping him sleepy (clearly, no caloric intake=no energy, so it makes sense). Soon, little one, soon you shall have breakfast!

Yep. I think it would be best to just feed him twice tomorrow. Space out his meals to give his system a chance to heal and settle. Don’t be surprised if the first few poops tomorrow and the next day are soft. That’s just his system healing and trying to work again. Take it slow and he’ll be just fine. I’ve had many dogs throughout my life and sometimes these things happen. If he does ok tomorrow then the next day you should be able to work him back to three meals and then four if that’s his usual routine. I really would advise against adding pasta or anything else. Remember you don’t want him to have to work overtime right now digesting different things. You’ll see Bruno is going to be fine.

Bruno is about a year now… Our guess is that his Birthday should be somewhere between March 1st and April 30th (I know, big range… But we’re so not super sure, he was changing his puppy teeth to adult teeth through October of last year, so if he was 6 months in October, he should have been born sometime in April…). So I would guess maybe April 1st-15th is a better guess…? Really have no idea though. But, yes, around a year or so now.

Awwww. He’s still a baby. You have to be careful at this stage. Too many different types of treats at the same time will always upset their tummies. Do forget he’s still a puppy puppy and not completely fully developed with everything working as it should. At first when I have puppies what I use for treats is their own kibble. For one. They don’t know the difference and dogs love to eat anyway. Second is that you know it works, he’s not allergic to it and his system tolerates him. When he gets older if you want to use something else as a treats for training find one that is teeny tiny since you’ll be giving him quite a few and keep his training sessions initially to around 10 minutes at a time. They say that the first 10 minutes in training is when they get the most out of it. You can then let him rest or play for a couple of hours and then train again for another 10 minutes. You can lengthen his training time once he’s older. Just keep in mind that he’s a baby. Small dogs mature way way slower than large dogs. Some small dogs are still considered puppies until they reach the age of four. Some really large dogs at four are almost considered middle age. I’ve had some dogs that I’ve always trained with their own tiny kibble. It’s almost still so surprising how much effort they’ll expend to get a tiny piece of treat. But they love the praise from mommy and daddy. I’m telling you, they really are like little babies and toddlers. That’s a good thing for you to always remember. They are helpless and you have to pretty much always make the right decisions for them. A lot of people through the years have made statements to me that they didn’t realize they were doing something wrong, that their dog really liked it. Just cause he liked it doesn’t mean it was good for the dog or that maybe one would have been good but more…not so good. I love hot fudge Sundays but I’m pretty damn sure more than one is gonna make me really really sick.

Bruno is doing much better! Last night poor baby must have been starving because he tried to eat my roommate’s dog’s food, and turned over his empty food dish and was chasing it around and licking it in the bathroom… It was pathetic, so I took it away. He slept all through the night and when taken out this morning, he didn’t poop. I fed him some of his kibble softened with warm water, and left home because I had to attend an event. When I just came home, he looks fine, no poop in the house, and when I took him out, he pooped a good amount and it was soft, but normal-soft, not weird-soft. It was formed and everything!

I think we are on the right track, so I will feed him the same for dinner too. He should be like new by tomorrow, if he keeps going this way! 🙂

Thank you all for the advice and concern, we really appreciate it! 🙂

P.S. Dori, in my research and in speaking with some vets, I was told the total opposite – that small dogs mature faster than large dogs, and can be considered adults by 7-8 months. I am confused now… As far as food goes, he was on puppy food until he was about 8 months or so, then went to all-life-stages food and will be on that for a while. How long should I consider him a “puppy”?

P. P. S. Also, before the treat incident (which were also good for him treats, with freeze-dried liver, bananas and carrots, not like a hot fudge sundae, lol), he was doing great on a variety of additives to his kibble to help with his usually extremely hard stools. He would get a canned sardine once a week, one raw egg/week, an RMB/week, coconut oil every other day, and pumpkin, ground flax seed, yoghurt – a couple times/week, and cottage cheese once a week. Also, natural chews, such as ears, bully sticks, piggy snouts, etc. (not all at once, maybe 1-2/week). So when can I reintroduce those, since he was fine with them (we have been doing this for 2+ weeks).

I’m so happy to hear that Bruno is on the mend. As soon as you seen that Bruno is back to normal you can start reintroducing the stuff you were adding to his diet. I would start slowly just as you did in the beginning and let him adjust to additives one at a time. Just not too much too soon. Before you know it he’ll be back to enjoying everything the way he was before. Just make sure all the chews are USA and nothing from China (re the fine print). Sometimes there’s like a big american flag on the front only to read in the fine print that it was packaged in the USA but ingredients are from China. Again, happy Bruno’s getting better.